Lee Westwood apologized Monday for using Twitter to vent frustrations after shooting a 76 at the PGA Championship.

Westwood fired off a series of tweets early Monday morning aimed at those who criticized him after he finished 13 shots behind tournament winner Jason Dufner. Westwood had started the final round within six shots of the lead.

Westwood started off at 4:11 a.m. ET by tweeting that he was tired of "sitting there taking it. Bring it on." He then wrote that he had not "chewed up a troll for a good while."

It was part of a 50-tweet session that included reflections, insults and profanities.

Nearly eight hours later, he used Twitter to apologize to his sponsors and followers, whose number exceeds 578,000.

During his rant, he referred to his Twitter critics as "minions" who "need to live from the inside out rather than the outside in."

Westwood, a former No. 1 player in the world, ended his venting by clarifying that his comments were real, but he was getting bored and signing off.

At least one deleted tweet that Westwood, ranked 12th heading into the tournament, read: "Come on you girly boy trolls! I've only won just over 2 mill on course this year! Need you to keep me entertained a bit longer than this!"